


Error

by husbandsuho



Category: VIXX
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, M/M, android!Taekwoon, engineer!Hakyeon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-31
Updated: 2016-07-31
Packaged: 2018-07-28 10:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7636591
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/husbandsuho/pseuds/husbandsuho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What’re you reading?"<br/>Taekwoon looked up, his expression muted and serene as always. The way Taekwoon’s face never changed annoyed Hakyeon greatly, but it was just a part of living with androids. You were constantly reminded how incredibly inhuman they were.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of three chapters of Error. I need to warn you however that this fic is unfinished and is unlikely to be finished any time soon or possibly ever. Please, pLEAse take this into consideration before reading.

Three laws exist in the realm of robotics. 

Three laws by which all robots are bound, the most fundamental rules followed. All androids have these laws wired into every cell of their makeup, not a single part free of the binding texts. They sit on walls of most homes, an easy reminder to humans that they are truly safe in the company of androids. A constant to calm the nerves. 

  
_The three laws of robotics_  
\- A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.  
\- A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.  
\- A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

  
Hakyeon, like any other person, knew them by heart, even having read the full outline of the laws. All 400 pages of them. He’d never had any real interaction with the wiring of these laws, since they came ingrained in the parts they ordered. He was entirely unsure of how this was done, how they managed to saturate every bolt and wire in the texts. “Magic potion” was what Wonshik called it, but it’s seemed to be some sort of liquid coding. The laws were entirely separate from the mechanics, residing somewhere in a remote high security government building. Not a single material they used was distributed without going through this building. Layers upon layers of code piled in to every part, and the world was safe. They could all be sure, nothing could break the laws.  

It was all a little out of Hakyeon’s area. He was much more at home fitting and repairing broken parts, making them whole again. He’d been working around robots since he was a kid, always helping his dad in his workshop. His dad knew almost everything there was to know about robots, having worked more than 30 years with and around some of the top android manufacturers and encoders. 

Hakyeon couldn’t boast quite such a position; his work primarily consisting of rewiring limbs and replacing damaged skins. But he loved the work, he loved figuring out the mechanics and bringing something broken back to life. It was enough for him.

“You done with that arm yet? The customers called for about the _hundredth_ time asking about it,” Wonshik’s voice boomed through the doorway. 

He appeared, leaning against the frame. His face, as usual, was covered in smudges as black as his hands. It seemed the oil, which almost constantly covered them, had permanently stained Wonshik’s hands. Something that could easily be avoided by actually using the gloves Hakyeon bought him.

Hakyeon sighed, “No, I’ve still got a bit to do. The nerves are completely shot, I can’t even begin to imagine how they did it.”

“Maybe you should call them and break the news, I don’t think I can handle speaking to that woman again,” Wonshik grunted, his face belaying his displeasure. Customer service had never been Wonshik’s strength. Hakyeon couldn’t help but whine.

“Get Hongbin to do it, it’s his job! What kind of secretary is he; all he does is watch movies. I can’t believe you pay him.”

Wonshik just smiled and glided back out the door, “Just call her Hakyeon,” he called back.

 

Wonshik had been right to avoid the call. The moment she had picked, Hakyeon felt as though he was in a war zone. 

“I don’t understand why it takes you people so long to do anything! I’m sure if I’d taken this to my usual mechanic they’d have finished it in a day, and for half the price!”

Hakyeon could only close his eyes, his free hand coming up to massage at his temples. Her voice was harsh and grating, and she’d been talking at him for more than 10 minutes now. He could feel a migraine coming on.

It took another 10 minutes until Hakyeon could finally hang up.

“Oh shut up, you dimpled demon spawn,” he spat at Hongbin, who had come to laugh at him halfway through the conversation. Hongbin’s smile only grew wider.

“Why didn’t you just get Taekwoon to do it? I’m sure that sweet voice of his would have won her over,” Hongbin suggested.

“Unfortunately, I left Taekwoon at home today,” Hakyeon replied, regret filling his soul. Taekwoon could have probably gotten that woman off his back for the rest of eternity. The android had a certain knack at changing people’s minds. Maybe it was his constantly calm and quiet tone, or his low soft voice. Either way it almost always worked, especially (and infuriatingly) well on Hakyeon.

“Why did you stop bringing him in as often? He’s a funny little robot, he’s good company,” Hongbin mused.

“Mainly because you and Wonshik mess with him so much. Anyway, I think he likes being alone.”

Hongbin rolled his eyes at him.

“Shut up, I think he’s actually quite fond of me,” he sniffed, “What does he even do all day? He can’t just be cleaning.”

“I haven’t the faintest clue, he’s usually just sitting on the couch when I get home.”

“Weird.”

“You’re telling me.”

 

\---

 

"What’re you reading?" 

Taekwoon looked up, his expression muted and serene as always. The way Taekwoon’s face never changed annoyed Hakyeon greatly, but it was just a part of living with androids. You were constantly reminded how incredibly inhuman they were.

Hakyeon had just arrived home, after another couple hours battling with the haywire arm. As usual, Taekwoon was sitting on the couch, sitting impossibly upright. His usually deep brown eyes were lit up to a slowly pulsing orange colour, indicating he was processing something. Hakyeon could tell he was reading, something he seemed to be seeing more and more from Taekwoon.

There was a faint click immediately after Hakyeon spoke, and Taekwoon’s eyes returned slowly to their usual colour.

Taekwoon blinked at him, “nothing of importance.”

The sigh Hakyeon let out was long and whiny, but as expected, Taekwoon didn’t hint at any reaction. 

“God you’re so secretive Taekwoonie, I just want to know what it was. You seemed very engrossed,” Hakyeon expressed, “was it a medical journal?”

Taekwoon was silent for a moment, his face showing nothing. Sometimes it was like talking to a wall, Taekwoon was incredibly stubborn for an android. But sometimes Hakyeon quiet enjoyed it, enjoyed the challenge Taekwoon offered, unlike other androids. 

The room was quiet apart from the very faint whirring Taekwoon always gave off when he was thinking. Hakyeon stood, annoyed, staring pointedly at the android.

“It was Animal Farm,” Taekwoon spoke softly, standing up and striding out of the room.

Hakyeon gurgled, slightly offended by Taekwoon’s rudeness. 

“Excuse me young man! Did I say you could leave?” He shouted after Taekwoon. He rounded the doorway, finding Taekwoon by the kitchen counter, apron already around his shoulders. He looked up, his eyes wide. 

“I need to start dinner, I apologise.”

With a sigh Hakyeon shuffled to the other side of the counter, sitting on one of the tall chairs. He was still a bit ruffled by Taekwoon’s sudden and unusual rudeness, but he tried not to let it get to him. Taekwoon probably didn’t fully understand the implications anyway. I would be nice if he did though, Hakyeon thought wistfully. 

He leaned forward on the spotless granite, watching Taekwoon work. His hands worked quickly, rapidly chopping vegetables and throwing them in an already sizzling pot. 

The way Taekwoon cooked always scared Hakyeon, his movements always sharp and harsh, but he could never convince himself to look away. It was mesmerising how perfectly the movements flowed, completing every task as the next begun. It made Hakyeon a little ashamed of himself when he attempted to fry an egg (which usually resulted in the fire alarms activating). Everything about the way Taekwoon moved was smooth and sleek, and ever so _slightly_ inhuman. 

“I didn’t know you read novels,” Hakyeon spoke.

Taekwoon lifted his head at the words, continuing to cut the meat he was preparing. It made Hakyeon nervous but he tried to ignore it, focusing instead on Taekwoon’s curious eyes.

“I took it up a short time ago, I find them interesting,” the android said softly, but stopped his explanation there.

“What about them?” Hakyeon pressed. He’d never seen an android read for pleasure before; never seen Taekwoon read anything outside of medical journals and reports for that matter. It was interesting, very unexpected, but he’d never fully understood the psyche behind robots. He just connected the wires.

Taekwoon was still looking at him, calmly, but obviously contemplating the question. His mouth opened slightly in thought.

“The language patterns are interesting, but strange. They’re all so different, sometimes I can’t make sense of them,” he finally spoke, his hands actually slowing as he spoke, “The expression is all scattered, all different. I don’t really understand.”

Hakyeon chuckled softly. But Taekwoon’s thoughts were quite remarkable, but also not unusual coming from an android. The confusion was often a daily occurrence, especially from younger models. Though they had all the information in the world at their disposal, androids were very often unable to comprehend emotions or social norms. Myths and legends had always confused Taekwoon, probably still did, since his highly scientific mind could hardly begin to understand why they existed. He’d actually quite upset Hakyeon when he’d explained magic to Taekwoon, something Hakyeon was fond of. The android had brushed off the idea, stating fact after fact, which denied the existence of such things. Like he said, stubborn.

“Do you always read when I’m gone?”

The android gave a short nod, shifting his focus back to the cooking. It seemed that would probably be all Hakyeon got out of him. 

The kitchen already smelt amazing, and Hakyeon’s stomach gurgled angrily at him. Damn stomach, always so impatient. But Taekwoon’s cooking made always made it hard for him to wait, and he often found himself sneaking bites and spoonful’s while the android was preoccupied. Though he often burned himself and got scolded by Taekwoon, it was worth it. The bubbling jjigae on the stove looked all too tempting, but Taekwoon’s watchful eye stopped him from trying anything. Hakyeon squirmed in his seat.

“It will be done soon, be patient” Taekwoon murmured.

Hakyeon rolled his eyes, “yes mom.”

A couple minutes later they were sat at the table, a steaming bowl in front of Hakyeon. It was delicious, as usual. Taekwoon sat across from him, filtering through files from the day. He had a habit of staying close to Hakyeon when they were at home, and always sat with him when he ate. It had been a little weird at first, but Hakyeon had started to enjoy the company, as silent as the android was. He had Taekwoon project the news for him and he absently read through the stories. Mostly stories about the rise in black market androids, which was all there seemed to be these days. 

Hakyeon found it hard to worry too much about these cases, since this apparent rise had been going on for years now. Hakyeon didn’t really have anything to do with those incidents anyway, so why worry? There wasn’t really a day where there wasn’t more news about more arrests, another haywire android. It was never anything too bad generally just malfunctions and scams. It was mostly large-scale fraud from what Hakyeon could see. The main concern was the bots were often made with materials without law coding, but there had only ever been one case of an android breaking the laws, and that had been relatively minor. Honestly he wasn’t really sure why there was so much police and public concern, the actual cases seemed few an far between. It was likely just due to the way the tabloids blew it all up, running new stories warning of the criminal threat ‘lawless’ bots could be in future. That made Hakyeon laugh since people had always used androids for criminal activity for centuries, even with the codes. Sometimes it made him wonder why he even read the news anymore, if that was all it was. 

Hakyeon sighed and closed the projection, Taekwoon coming into view again.

“Thanks Taekwoonie,” Hakyeon said with a smile, and went back to finishing his dinner. It was quiet again.

“Have you read Animal Farm?” Taekwoon asked suddenly, cocking his head slightly. He looked like a puppy like that.

“Ah, yeah, I read it in high school,” he was a little surprised by Taekwoon’s sudden question. It was quite unusual for him to ask Hakyeon anything personal.

Taekwoon nodded, “did you like it?”

Hakyeon stuttered a little. The android was being weirder than usual.

“I, um, I don’t really remember it too well to be honest… It was a while ago.”

Taekwoon didn’t respond, rather opting to continue looking at Hakyeon, head still cocked. Obviously he wanted more than that. Hakyeon sighed, trying to remember anything about the book. Honestly he wasn’t even sure he finished it. He had usually done the bare minimum at school, and reading an entire novel when there were perfectly good summaries out there didn’t seem like something he would have done. He knew the general idea, which was kind of cool.

“I guess I liked the idea?” Hakyeon tried, hoping it was enough for the android. He had no idea what had gotten into him, he almost never asked about Hakyeon’s opinions on anything, especially not books. 

Taekwoon nodded again, a little more enthusiastically, “I thought it was very interesting, insightful. I very much enjoyed it.”

Hakyeon laughed. Only a small laugh, but a laugh all the same, making Taekwoon even more confused. The shock of hearing Taekwoon say something like that, say he enjoyed something, was almost too much. But Hakyeon liked it. He flapped his hand at Taekwoon.

“Sorry, I just, I’ve never heard you say anything like that,” he explained, “It’s nice.” 

The android moved his head a little, his face softening again. Quiet again.

The bowl was empty by now, and Hakyeon could felt full and sleepy, his eyes dropping a bit out of exhaustion. The amount of time he’d spent that day fiddling with tiny nerves and wires was ridiculous, and he could feel the strain in his eyes as a result. It was still pretty early, only 7:30 by the kitchen clock, but he felt tired enough to go to bed and get a good nights sleep for once. Languidly, he pushed his chair back, summoning the energy to stand up. Taekwoon looked up at him, waiting for some type of instruction.

“I think I’m going to go to bed. Can you set an alarm for seven tomorrow? I need to finish a job,” he said with a sigh, swaying slightly where he stood. Taekwoon nodded, a small circle of light pulsing around his pupil for a moment as he set the alarm. Hakyeon smiled and began to lumber toward his bedroom, only thinking of sleep. Taekwoon made a small noise, which slowed him.

“I think I have a small nerve damage in my chest, I have been experiencing small twinges for a few days now,” he said softly.

“Oh?” Hakyeon hummed, a yawn bubbling from his chest, “when’d it start?”

“Four days ago while I was reading. I’ve run diagnostics but they’ve been clear.”

Hakyeon waved his hand behind him and shuffled forward again, “Yeah sure I’ll check it out tomorrow, thanks Taekwoonie.”

 

\---

 

Taekwoon was only the faintest beginnings of a being when Hakyeon had first seen him. 

It had been a cold morning and Hakyeon had woken up early, shivering under his sheets. The heater in his room had gone out, again. Living in an old house like theirs could be a struggle, especially in winter. But Hakyeon’s father refused to replace the heaters until they were beyond repair. So they were stuck with heaters that shut off randomly, often, in the very early morning, and restarting them was a total bitch. The switchboard, stupidly, was out in the workshop, a place filled with so much metal and stone it was as good as a freezer.

“Fucking hell,” Hakyeon grumbled, struggling out of his thick blankets. When his feet hit the ground he hissed, darting to grab his slippers and dressing gown. Thank god he didn’t have school that day and could sleep in. The air actually bit at his face when he opened the door. He swore again. Good his mother was asleep, or he’d be dead. She didn’t have much patience for foul language, not that it really stopped him; he just toned it down around her. He probably had the foulest mouth amongst his friends. 

The workshop wasn’t far from his room, only a couple meters, but the hallway between the rooms had an awful draft. The ice breeze skimmed Hakyeon’s bare calves, which stuck out from his fluffy gown. He decided to run.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Hakyeon hissed, hopping from one foot to another while he fiddled with the door handle. The lights where already on when he opened the door, bringing a slight amount of warmth to the room. He sighed in relief. 

With the absence of the ice wind, he could move easier, shuffling tiredly to the switchboard.

He frowned. All the heaters were out.

Usually only two or three would go out at once, rarely all of them. That only really happened when his father used on of his machines.

Hakyeon sighed, “god dammit,” he turned and looked around the workshop, “dad?”

There wasn’t a reply. Hakyeon sighed again; his father had a tendency to get over involved in his work, sometimes he would have to yell at him just to get him to stop fiddling and have dinner with them. But it was probably best not to disturb him then. It did mean he’d have to leave the heaters off. He’d just have to get some heat packs and hope he could get back to sleep, it was way too early for him to stay awake. 

Reluctantly, he shuffled toward to door again, cursing his father under his breath. But before he was out of the room, he noticed something in the corner. Tucked away in the far right corner of the front room way a locker. Rather large, almost like a steel wardrobe. Hakyeon had never seen it opened. On the front was a large and study finger print lock, one of the expensive ones his father only used for the storerooms and the workshop door. But today, it was open, the doors ajar to give a slight peek inside. It was too dark to make out clearly. Curiosity itched at the back of his mind. He asked his father what was inside often, turning it into a joke as time went by, but he never got an answer. The locker had stood in that corner for years, always closed and always fascinating Hakyeon. He needed to know what was inside.

Slowly, he crept towards to corner, his slippers scuffling along the ground. He almost hummed in excitement, but his racing heart stopped him. He could only shuffle inch by inch towards the cabinet. Leaning over, he tried to peek inside. The light glinted dimly or metal and wire. With a slightly shaky hand, Hakyeon reached out and swung the door open; the hinges creaking softly as is went.

It was only in its beginnings, only a portion of a skeleton, wire and metal jutting hanging loosely from the frame. The frame stood by itself in the locker, swamped by dark, cold empty space. This form of an android, raw and stripped bare was what always interested Hakyeon, what he’d always ask to see. But the face was what drew his eye, as though a magnet was tugging at his attention. The face was complete, seemingly the sole focus of the being. 

It, _he,_ was beautiful.

He was serene, eyes closed as though in a deep sleep. His bottom lips drooped just slightly, leaving a small gap through which a line of pearly white teeth peeked. High cheekbones and dark hair.

Hakyeon’s hands itched, itched to reach up and touch the smooth, pale skin. To run his thumb over the full rosy lips. So pretty, so perfect.

He looked so real. He was nothing like the androids Hakyeon was used to, all metal and sleek. Instead he was raw and delicate. Human.

Hakyeon sighed and moved closer, standing on his toes to reach up to the face. He was so much taller than Hakyeon, as long and tall as his father was. Inch by inch, Hakyeon reach his hand towards his face, his fingers shaking slightly. His eyes were wide in wonder.

“Pretty,” he whispered so softly it was barely more than escaped air, and his fingers brushed the androids cheek. A small electric tingle ran through Hakyeon’s fingers, and he smiled softly. 

“Hakyeon?”

A cold draft blew into the room, biting at Hakyeon’s knuckles. He flinched and whipped around, heart jumping. Across the room stood his father, clad in a thick apron and wielding gloves. Hakyeon squeaked.

“I was just- it was already open, I was just looking, I-I didn’t touch anything I promise,” his tongue tripped on the words. The look on his fathers face scared him; different to anything he’d seen on him before. It wasn’t anger, at least not the usual hot and lashing type. The expression was cold and all too calm, and that scared Hakyeon even more. He hadn’t meant to do anything wrong he just wanted to see what was hid in that locker.

His father sighed, dropping his hands by his sides as he strode surly towards Hakyeon.

“Shit no dad I-I’m sorry I didn’t mean to I didn’t mess with anything I promise please-”

The man cut him off with a sharp slam of the locker doors.

“Go back to bed Hakyeon,” he said calmly. Hakyeon choked a little, unsure whether to stay or simply scamper away.

“I-I’m sorry, please don’t be angry.”

“I’m not angry,” his father didn’t look at him as he said it, simply staring ahead at the closed locker, “It’s okay. Just go to bed, I’ll turn the heaters back on.”

Though his bed and room were warm when he got back, Hakyeon couldn’t go back to sleep. He couldn’t help wonder about the locker, the android. Images of his father’s cold face floated through his mind and he shivered under his warm blankets. He’d never seen that before, and he didn’t really want to see it again.

But the thoughts where later replaced with another face, much later when his eyes had drooped and he’d let the warmth of the room cradling him into a sleep. He dreamed of the pretty face and all of its soft colours. Dreamed of the plush lips and fluttering eyelashes. Dreamed of gentle brown eyes watching him softly in his sleep.


	2. Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hakyeon glared at him. Rationalising Hakyeon’s complaints never worked, “You realise this means we won’t have Xiumin running your checks? You’ll have some random prodding at you, you should be as annoyed as I am.”

Ever since android technology advanced far enough to produce human like machines, international checks had been introduced. They were held twice a year, spreading over three weeks. Every android across each country was scheduled to be brought into the nearest government building and were inspected. Since Taekwoon wasn’t factory produced, there was a lot more paper work involved with his checks, much to Hakyeon’s annoyance. Where regular checks would take no more than an hour, it took more than three days for Taekwoon’s inspection to be completed. Every inch of his coding had to be checked, as well as the properties of his make up. Test after test, as well as form after form. Hakyeon always complained about it the weeks before the checks were due, when he was sent his mammoth pile of forms. Taekwoon wasn’t able to help with any of the forms, since it was against protocol, so all he could do was pull up information for Hakyeon to fill in. It was all very mundane.

The main reason given for the checks was to make sure the Law codes were all still intact, but it was common knowledge the checks were primarily to find black market androids. That meant a whole lot more of a headache for Hakyeon. Taekwoon didn’t really mind the checks, since majority of it he could run his usual programs, but he hated the software checks. He hated the feeling of them rummaging around in his data. It was always so disorganised afterwards, meaning a day of sorting. Hell, absolute hell.

Hakyeon sighed as he dumped the load of forms on his desk.

“I can’t believe they’re doing the checks early this year, I had stuff planned for this week!” He huffed. Taekwoon sat beside him, the file containing all his information pulled up.

“The forms take you no more than two days, you will have time this week,” Taekwoon mumbled, “besides, mine isn’t scheduled until the last day, we have three weeks to complete these.”

Hakyeon glared at him. Rationalising Hakyeon’s complaints never worked, “You realise this means we won’t have Xiumin running your checks? You’ll have some random prodding at you, you should be as annoyed as I am.”

“Fortunately I cannot feel such things.”

“Oh shut up, you complain about the software checks all the time,” the mechanic hissed.

With all his connections, Hakyeon had always been able to ensure they got the same technician every year. Xiumin, as Hakyeon’s childhood friend, was much more likely to let out of date software and worn parts slip, things Hakyeon didn’t have the money or time to maintain quiet as well as officially needed. With the earlier checks, Xiumin would be out of the country at the time, visiting his family. It seemed no one had been properly notified the dates had been moved up.

“I guess I wont be eating this month, your fans alone cost $5 ,000. Fuck my life.”

The groans and swearing didn’t stop for the whole day, and Taekwoon was sure if he were human he’d have a headache by the end of it. But the constant twinge in his chest was as good as one.

 

\---

 

Taekwoon stood in front of the mirror, a soft smile on his lips. The corner of his lips were pulled up just so, before he relaxed them back to their natural shape. 

_Interesting_. 

The house was empty aside from the android, and it was eerily quiet. Not that it bothered the stoic robot. Hakyeon was working again, and Taekwoon had opted to stay behind. He didn’t offer much assistance by accompanying him to the office, and Hakyeon often complained about Wonshik and Hongbin slacking off when Taekwoon was around. The logical option was for Taekwoon to stay behind. 

He didn’t mind the vacant house, since it offered him more time and space to complete tasks. He was finally able to file his system properly and back up his data without constant interruptions from the human. The cleaning could be done properly, and the books on the shelf in Hakyeon’s were _finally_ in order. The unorganised books had poked at Taekwoon’s programming to no end. But Hakyeon didn’t like Taekwoon going into his room if he was “just going to clean”, and had told him that he could only go in if he wanted to talk to him or if Hakyeon was out. Finally that barrier of coding had given way. Knowing the shelves were ordered eased the androids mind.

He had run out of tasks an hour ago though, and Hakyeon wouldn’t be for for another two. Usually his system would simply hibernate until he had something to do again, but he was still running a system backup that prevented him from any shutdown. Backups ran in the background though, and Taekwoon found himself almost… bored. So there he stood in front of the mirror, analysing his facial movements.

He was very familiar with the emotional movements of the human face, since Hakyeon made absolutely sure his facial analysis and reading systems were perfect. He could tell the smallest changes in a persons face, and constantly ran this through an emotional reader. Telling the emotions was easy, but understanding them was near impossible. Emotions had far eluded Taekwoon, as did they any android. They simply didn’t possess them. Most androids, himself included, were programmed with simulated emotions, but these were entirely external, through voice and body language. It seemed his programming wasn’t very strong however, as many people commented on his cold temperament. He couldn’t really do much about it, but sometimes he would attempt to replicate the expressions he knew. 

He didn’t often use a mirror, but it offered a good tool for him to read back the expression. Happiness was his most practiced expression, since it seemed it was the emotion people enjoyed the most. The smile he could muster was never big, but he thought it conveyed the expression sufficiently. At least Hakyeon thought so.

_“You look good when you smile Woonie!”_

A small beep sounded in Taekwoon’s head signalling the backup was finished. He sighed, knowing he should probably hibernate, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Though he had no task to complete, he wanted to do something. He wanted to fill his time rather than hibernate. He had a little less than two hours before Hakyeon would be home, so what could he do? He tried to think back on all the things Hakyeon did when he was bored, but that usually just involved whining to Taekwoon. But he remembered the books he’d cleaned up earlier. They would likely be strewn around the room again soon, since Hakyeon read so much. There was a thought.

Going back into Hakyeon’s now tidy room, Taekwoon scanned the bookcase, searching. Many of the books were very worn, the spines cracked and the binding weak. Hakyeon called it love but to Taekwoon it was just mistreatment. Some of the books didn’t even have their covers. Why Hakyeon took so little care of them was beyond Taekwoon, since physical books were pretty much a rarity. The whole bookcase of books was probably worth more than Hakyeon made in a year. 

Taekwoon sought out the most worn book, the one that had been read a thousand times. There it was, a truly battered book. The title no longer existed on the destroyed spine, but Taekwoon’s analysers could pick out the faint remnants of ink. 

_The Great Gatsby_

Taekwoon had heard the title a couple times, mainly when Hakyeon spoke about it, but it had come up a couple of times in his research over the years. He never read much about or around literature, since his main focus was medicine and mechanics, but the title came up more often than he’d expected. It was quiet an old book by any means, but it seemed it was still quite popular. He’d often thought about finding out why. He gave a small sigh and picked the book out of the shelf, carful not to further damage the destroyed cover.

“Worth a try.”

 

\---

 

“How often does it hurt?”

Taekwoon processed for a moment; searching for the occasions he’d felt the strange twinge in his chest. He found it, the numbers coming together in his head instantly.

“Thirty times in the last two weeks,” he said. He was sat on the workbench, electrodes attached to his chest, with Hakyeon standing before him. The small pulses of the electrodes tickled his nerves lightly and his mouth twitched. It was quite nice the feeling, an addition to his usual energy.

Hakyeon frowned, “Wow, that’s quite a lot. Does it happen every day?”

“Yes,” Taekwoon replied, “Usually in the afternoon when I read.”

Hakyeon hummed and nodded, looking down at the tablet in his hand. The diagnostics Hakyeon could do were far more advanced and accurate than the self-checks Taekwoon could run. Mostly they could only check surface and serious nerve damage, and some software faults. Just enough to notice anything seriously wrong. Pain was an aspect of these diagnostics, although not as strong as human pain and a great deal easier to control. But it was an extremely effective alarm, and Taekwoon found it quite interesting. Though he knew it was unpleasant, watching Hakyeon stub his toe or prick his finger was fascinating. He loved that entirely human sudden and momentary lack of control. He didn’t quite know that. The pain almost always ran in the background, separate from his processing. It never clouded his thought process, only increased with the severity of the damage. Sometimes Taekwoon would try to bring the pain forward to see what it was like. He could never pull it far, but it was fun to feel that slight give in his control. Hakyeon would probably be quite mad if he knew this was what Taekwoon did when he was damaged. Hakyeon hated the pain aspect. He would often comfort Taekwoon when he repaired him, and always injected an anaesthetic. It really wasn’t necessary, but many engineers used it nonetheless, most likely to ease their morality, which was even more interesting.

“Well I don’t think it’s software,” Hakyeon hummed, “I’m just going to run a scan on your chest.”

The pulsing increased a little, the hum through his body rising in pitch. It was so sweet and high, and rattled Taekwoon’s nerves in a delightful way. His mouth twitched again. He loved scans. Loved being connected with something in tune with his being that spoke in the same electric waves. 

His chest twinged again.

“It just hurt again,” Taekwoon spoke softly. Hakyeon looked up from the scan, worry in his eyes. 

“I’m sorry Woonie, I’m trying to find the problem but I can’t find anything on the scan yet. Does it hurt a lot?”

Taekwoon quickly shook his head no. The twinge was nowhere near painful. It felt more like a small electric jolt through his chest, like a minor energy overload. It made his chest feel tight and clammy.

Hakyeon sighed, putting down the tablet and leaned on the bench.

“The scan hasn’t picked anything up, the nerves all look very stable. Is there anything else it could be?” Hakyeon sighed, his brow pinching in thought.

Taekwoon really couldn’t think of anything. He’d spent quite a while searching for anything which could cause the twinge, but all he found was the possibility of nerve damage. He’d looked for other cases like his, but there were very limited and admittedly mostly sketchy results. He’d found a few posts on some more underground sights but all were theory and almost entirely legends, about ghosts in the machines, of androids with unbound parts. Of souls. He hadn’t paid them too much attention, but the soul theory was interesting. That sight was bookmarked for him to read later.

“There is nothing more I can think of,” Taekwoon replied, eyes trained on Hakyeon.

He’d dyed his hair recently to a dark red, and the newness of the colour was obvious even to human eyes. But it was nice, a comfortable shade and Taekwoon liked it. It suited Hakyeon better than the garish and badly dyed blonde he used to have. The coppery red hair shone pleasantly under the light, and the acute lenses of Taekwoon’s eyes could pick up the individual light fractals. They shone like crystals. Pretty.

“Taekwoon are you listening?”

Taekwoon blinked and ran back the recording of what Hakyeon had last said. He hadn’t been listening, not really, but his memory bank ran a constant recording of the sounds around him. It was incredibly useful in situations like these, since Hakyeon hated being ignored.

“Of course I was,” Taekwoon spoke as he listened to Hakyeon’s previous words. _“Tell me what exactly you were doing when you first felt it. Maybe it’s circumstantial.”_

“The first time was two Fridays ago. It was 4:45pm and I was reading The Great Gatsby,” He recounted. Hakyeon hummed, still looking down at his tablet.

“Maybe it’s the file you downloaded, do you still have it stored?”

Taekwoon blinked, “No I didn’t download it, I read your hardcopy.”

Hakyeon looked up slightly startled.

“You… you read my copy?”

“Yes.”

Taekwoon couldn’t read Hakyeon’s expression then. He’d never seen it before.

“What are you feeling?” Taekwoon asked, a slot ready to save the expression to his memory. Hakyeon blinked at him, expression turning to one the android did know.

“Oh shut up Taekwoon,” he barked, turning away to put his tablet down, “why does it matter? I’m hurt okay!”

That surprised Taekwoon. He knew hurt, but only physical, the teeth gritting and shouting kind. And why was beyond him.

“What has hurt you?”

Hakyeon scowled at him, “you know I don’t like you- no… anyone touching my books. I’ve told you that! I was already pissed off enough when you rearranged them Taekwoon, but now I find out you actually took one, and the most delicate one at that? How am I supposed to feel?”

Taekwoon didn’t know. How could he know? He knew nothing about emotions; he didn’t know how one was meant to feel in this situation. He didn’t even know humans could feel emotional pain until that day. Why was this his fault? How was he supposed to know?

“I don’t understand why you’re angry, I took care of the book, I didn’t damage it in any way. That’s more than I can say for you, Hakyeon.”

His hand shot out to hit Hakyeon’s hand away from his shoulder, where he had been trying to place it. His words slipped out of his mouth, all too fast, all too unexpected. His body had reacted automatically, unthinking. He could still hear the faint remnants of the slap. Where had his filter been, why hadn’t the words processed? Why the hell hadn’t his body seized up at the mere thought of hitting Hakyeon? His processor was only now picking up the action, alarms going off in all corners of his mind. 

“What the fuck has gotten into you Taekwoon?” Hakyeon spoke, his expression serious, eyebrows knitted together. Taekwoon looked down, hiding his face _. He shouldn’t have done that._  

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his hands grasped tightly together, “I should not have done that.” 

The knuckles were white. The alarms were still going, so noisy. He couldn’t think past the blasting of his mistake all through his mind. He tried to quiet them, but they wouldn’t stop, they wouldn’t go away. _Error._ The bright red word splashed across every alarm.

“Taekwoon tell me what’s going on,” Hakyeon demanded, “what is wrong with you?”

Taekwoon gasped, the alarms growing even louder, he could hardly hear. Why was it like this?

“Help me,” he whimpered, “they won’t stop.”

“What won’t stop? Taekwoon what the fuck?”

He vision was going, blurring. He couldn’t focus his lenses at all, the mechanism refusing to comply. It was so dark. He couldn’t hear, he couldn’t see. Why was this happening, it was a mistake. He didn’t mean to.

“Please, please, please,” he chanted, unsure if it was out loud. He couldn’t hear anymore. 

_Error. Error. Error._

He couldn’t see Hakyeon anymore, couldn’t hear him, though he was sure he was talking, his back up hearing told him that. But he didn’t know what it was. 

The lights were dimming, fading to blackness, and his night vision wouldn’t kick in. 

Why wasn’t anything working?

And suddenly he was falling, hitting the bench hard, not a single nerve ready for the impact. It was painful, but not as painful as the screeching of the alarms ripping through his head. He couldn’t see anything, couldn’t hear.

A notice popped up.

_Shut down in, 5. 4. 3. 2…_

“Taekwoon!”

_1._


	3. Electric

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh my fucking god,” was Hakyeon’s response, “this is incredible!” his hands reacted out to hold Taekwoon’s shoulders and he beamed at him. He looked radiant and Taekwoon all but sighed at the sight of his ecstatic smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfotunately I've been very unmotivated to write so I haven't been working on this for a significant amount of time. This chapter is the last of what I have fully and consistently written out, the rest is random scenes I never pieced together. This doesn't mean I won't ever update this story again, but the likelihood is pretty low at this point. I hope you've enjoyed what's been posted so far at least, thank you so much for reading ♥  
> ps: I'm happy to answer questions about the rest of this story on my ask.fm if anyone has them

“Taekwoon-ah?”

The muffled voice broke through Taekwoon’s sensors, the whir of his system restarting blurring out the words. A crack of light broke into his vision. With a couple of blinks, his lenses focused, a blinding white light above him. His head hurt like hell. _What happened?_

He tried to sit up, but a pair of hands held him back.

“Just stay laying down.”

He blinked again, focusing this time on the person beside him. He hummed, his eyes fluttering as he took in Hakyeon’s worried expression. A sharp pain shot through his head again, and he only later noticed the twinge was back. He groaned.

“W-what?” He said, his voice cracking slightly, “What happened?”

Hakyeon smiled softly, “your, ah, your system shut down, but I still haven’t figured out why. You’ve been out for a day.”

A day? How was that possible? 

He couldn’t remember a thing, it was just darkness. A darker and deeper void than any type of sleep.

“How… is that possible? I can’t just… _shut off_ ,” Taekwoon rasped, his voice still gruff.

It was true; it was virtually impossible for him, or any android to shut themselves off. The furthest they could power down was to shut off all systems except for their backup sensory network. Even in the case of a complete battery drain, there were three back up batteries, as well as a constant solar charge. Only a termination could shut down every system.

He tried to sit up again, his head feeling considerably clearer, but Hakyeon pushed him back down.

“Stay,” he ordered. Taekwoon huffed at him. He watched Hakyeon pick up his tablet out of the corner of his eye, careful not to turn his head. It was stupid, he felt fine.

“I ran some tests while you were out but, I really can’t find anything. What do you remember?” Hakyeon asked.

“I, um,” Taekwoon started, trying to remember. All his system recorded was noise, so much noise. He could barely remember the moments before he blacked out, all the noise and _red_ blurring together. But he did remember one thing, clearer than anything else. The sting of his skin slapping against Hakyeon’s imprinted in his nerves. It felt so ingrained he lifted his hand to check for damage, a scar. There was nothing.

“What?”

Hakyeon touched his fingers to Taekwoon’s hand, trying to see what he was looking at. Taekwoon snatched his hand away.

“It’s nothing.”

The mechanic frowned.

“What’s going on Taekwoon?”

_What was going on?_ Honestly, he hadn’t a clue. He felt different, wrong. His entire body felt shifted, jilted out of place. It was as though all of his cells had been moved to a more shaky position. He felt so unstable. His mind was a mess; the data spread everywhere, worse than what it would be after an examination. It was like a tornado had whipped through his files, scattering them like flimsy paper. His hands were shaking so violently he had to place them under his body. But the tremors only spread to the rest of his body. His chest felt tight.

“I feel so… strange, Hakyeon,” the android spoke softly, a frown pinching at his brow, “I don’t understand.”

“Maybe your systems being overworked, you’ve just come out of a major shut down, don’t move so much.”

Taekwoon shook his head slowly.

“That’s not it, I’m running fine. It isn’t my system, i-it’s… I don’t understand.”

The feeling was so… internal. It filled all of him, from his toes to his fingertips. It was like nothing else he knew, but could only imagine it was what pain was like for humans. So overwhelming and unstoppable. Because as hard as he tried, he couldn’t push it aside. It clogged up his entire mind.

His eye roamed the room as he tried to understand, until something caught his gaze. On the wall across from where he sat hung a framed document. The document was fairly simple, a shiny silver crest stamped beside ‘Masters in Robotics Engineering’ printed in black. But what held Taekwoon’s attention were the few undoubtedly familiar lines at the bottom. Words that were seared into his memory from day one. 

The three laws.

The words had always had diamond tough edges to Taekwoon, unyielding and ultimately binding. When seeing them they would snap into place, aligning perfectly with everything Taekwoon knew. But something was different this time.

Taekwoon frowned as he stared at the words. They seemed wrong. They were almost… softer, frazzled around the edges like they’d been worn out. He made a small noise of confusion, blinking to look at the words again. 

It was all wrong.

The sting in his hand resurfaced, burning him and he flinched, looking down at his palm again. And something clicked.

“Hakyeon…” he barely whispered, lifting his head shakily to look at the worried engineer, “…I broke a law.”

Hakyeon looked at him, even more confused than before, and shook his head slightly.

“What are you talking about?”

Taekwoon could barely articulate the words in his own head, let alone say them out loud. His mind dodged around the clear fact that Taekwoon had hit Hakyeon, and the seemingly unbreakable laws had simply let him. There’d been no resistance in the action, and it scared Taekwoon beyond belief.

Slowly he sat up, wincing at the aches all over his body, and looked up at Hakyeon,

“I… I hit you Hakyeon,” he whispered and his voice was thick with horror. Hakyeon blinked at him, obviously trying to remember. Taekwoon knew the act would probably have been insignificant to Hakyeon, but to him it was earth shattering.

“I hit you when we fought. You tried to touch your hand to my shoulder and I hit it away,” he could barely raise his voice above an inoffensive whisper.

Hakyeon squinted and looked at his hand, “but… you can’t do that.”

“I did.”

Hakyeon let out a long breath, staring at Taekwoon in disbelief. And Taekwoon could understand the feeling. The laws were unbreakable, he knew that, they constantly surrounded him like a hard shell. But now it was soft, pliable, and Taekwoon knew if he really wanted to, he could push aside those laws and hurt Hakyeon, and it terrified him.

“That’s… incredible,” a giddy smile rose to Hakyeon’s face, and he grabbed Taekwoon’s hand, “try it again.”

The words raised hairs all over Taekwoon’s body, and gasped softly, “no.”

“Oh please,” Hakyeon whined and Taekwoon wasn’t sure he understood the situation, “I need to understand this Taekwoon.”

“No,” Taekwoon said firmly, “I can’t hurt you.”

“You won’t, I promise. I couldn’t even remember you hitting me before, it’ll be fine,” Hakyeon moved closer and held Taekwoon’s face in his hands, the android vaguely noticing a slight increase in his heart rate, “please? For me?”

And Taekwoon actually considered if. He closed his eyes with a huff and leant his cheek into Hakyeon’s palm, the touch comforting him as he mulled it over.

“As long as it’s only small,” he hummed softly, eyes still closed, “I’m afraid I will hurt you.”

“You’re afraid?” Hakyeon seemed bemused, “that’s… new.”

Taekwoon cocked his head, “yes, I suppose that’s true.”

As something with a purely rational mind, fear wasn’t something Taekwoon felt as a rule. But there he was, worry flooding his mind. He didn’t understand the new development and that brought doubts. He couldn’t know whether he could  control his own strength now.

Hakyeon held out his arm, “ok here, hit me.”

Taekwoon’s throat tightened and he looked down at Hakyeon’s waiting arm, calculating the least painful spot he could do it, and he heard Hakyeon chuckle.

“Don’t worry about me,” a reassuring smile spread on his face, but it softened when he saw the worry evident on Taekwoon’s face, “you can just pinch me if it’s easier.”

The idea comforted Taekwoon a little, something which he could have more control over, so slowly he nodded, looking back at Hakyeon. He let out a shaky breath and reached out for his arm, softly placing his palm over Hakyeon’s soft skin. 

He loved the feeling of Hakyeon’s skin. It was so smooth and _alive,_ so different from his own, though only his sensors could really feel the contrast between it and his own synthetic skin. He didn’t feel right marking something so beautiful.

“Here,” Hakyeon murmured, moving Taekwoon’s fingers and giving him an encouraging nod, “see if you can do it.”

With a shuddering breath Taekwoon nodded and looked down at the expanse of tan skin beneath his fingers. His joints felt still and unwilling to move, though he couldn’t tell whether it was the laws or his own anxiety anymore. Regulating his breathing was becoming difficult. Ever so slowly he let his fingers pinch together, only lightly holding the skin between them. It felt so wrong. 

He could barely tell himself to press down harder, anxiety rising in his throat at the mere thought. But still, it was so different from before, where such thoughts would simply have been blocked. Without those walls in his mind he felt a mess.

“Just press down Taekwoon, you can do it,” Hakyeon’s soft voice reassured him, and he took a deep breath and squeezed his fingers. 

He jerked at the feeling of Hakyeon’s skin squeeze between his fingers. He could feel every small shift in the membrane and then a sudden jolt of energy to the spot. Taekwoon gasped at it, the way that energy coursed under Hakyeon’s skin sending a jolt up his own arm. Energy sizzled through his body in a rush.

“Ack,” Hakyeon hissed, brushing Taekwoon’s hand away, but the grin on his face was unmistakable.

“Oh my god,” Taekwoon gasped, scrambling backwards, away from what he’d just done. It terrified him, knowing what had happened last time. But his alarms stayed eerily quiet, only the buzz of thoughts and energy filling his mind.

“Oh my _fucking god,_ ” was Hakyeon’s response, “this is _incredible!”_ his hands reacted out to hold Taekwoon’s shoulders and he beamed at him. He looked radiant and Taekwoon all but sighed at the sight of his ecstatic smile. Hakyeon really was beautiful.

“It is,” Taekwoon whispered, leaning forward with a heavy breath. The corners of his mouth twitched and turned upwards just slightly, all on their own. Hakyeon huffed a laugh at something and wrapped his arms around Taekwoon, something he’d never done before. Taekwoon’s chest tightened almost painfully, the small twinge he’d grown accustom to having grown into his entire chest, and his face soften. He couldn’t understand the feeling at all.

“I’m sorry I-I can’t do that again Hakyeon,” the android breathed against his neck, confusion lacing his abnormally unsteady voice. _It’s wrong_ , something in his mind said, a voice he’d never heard before. Was it his own?

“It’s ok don’t worry I won’t make you,” Hakyeon’s hand came up comb fingers through Taekwoon’s hair, “You should rest, you’ve been through a lot today. I can try give you a system clean to help if you’d like.”

Fingers continued to comb soothingly through Taekwoon’s hair and he nodded against his neck, breathing in slowly. He noted idly how much he liked Hakyeon’s scent. It was earthy with hints of the Jasmine scented soap he loved to use, but overall it was incredibly human. He’d always known the smell, but had never smelt it up so close. It made him wonder what he smelt like. Did Hakyeon like his scent?

The arms around him gave one final squeeze and let go, Hakyeon moving away to gather some materials, and Taekwoon felt a pang in his stomach at the loss of pressure around him. He watched Hakyeon move about tiredly, the energy drain finally hitting. He liked the idea of a system clean and recharge.

“Here,” Hakyeon said with a soft smile, touching a tiny chip softly at the base of Taekwoon’s skull, and he felt his the soothing wash of the cleanse take over his mind, “just lay down and rest, I’ll come back when it’s finished.”

Taekwoon nodded tiredly, smiling back at Hakyeon reflexly, and he let himself lay back down on the table. System cleanses always made him drowsy. His eye lids drooped as he accessed his sleep mode, his system slowly powering down one section at a time. Hakyeon was still smiling that soft smile at him, and his last thought before his system reverted to sleep mode was in wonder over how pretty Hakyeon’s smile was.

 

—

 

  _‘Your heart will tighten in that delicious squeeze and you’ll catch yourself smiling all the time for all kinds of ridiculous reasons.’_

Those words must have etched themselves into Taekwoon’s mind from the times he’d read them over and over. He’d abandoned his regular reading of medical journals or novels to pour himself into the words, to obsess over them, analyse them over and over. They intrigued him, but mostly they confused him because he found he could related to them. Taekwoon had never thought he’d relate to anything written in a teen magazine article titled _Ten Ways to Know You Have a Crush_.

A crush, it seemed from Taekwoon’s research, was someone you were romantically interested in, and he really wasn’t sure how that term sat with him. He’d just wanted to find more information on his recent symptoms, but this had been far from what he’d expected. Having a so called ‘crush’ was so outside anything he knew he wasn’t sure how to react to it. It scared him a little.

There were thousands of similar articles, most of them now saved to his hard drive. He’d read them over and over but still felt just as confused as he had to begin with.

With a sigh he minimised the windows, shelving those thoughts for later. 

Hakyeon was at work again, promising to be as quick as possible so that he could further comb through Taekwoon’s coding. He’d spent days trying to find some fault or break in the texts that could have cause the sudden absence of Taekwoon’s laws, but so far everything seemed completely normal. It was arduous, he could tell, watching Hakyeon sitting for hours scanning over the hundreds upon thousand lines of code on a screen while Taekwoon sat beside him and waited. Of course he’d run his own checks, but Hakyeon was nothing but thorough. But he still felt terrible that this problem was taking up so much of Hakyeon’s time when he had so much work to do. Let a lone the stacks of paperwork which still needed to be filled out for Taekwoon’s check up.

Hakyeon did, however, look very cute doing it. His glasses perched on his scrunched up nose as he analysed each line. Taekwoon didn’t know why he’d never noticed it before.


End file.
